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A Piece of Our Mind

This “mid-week level” puzzle, with a political theme (pictorial hint to the right), is released with the utmost respect for the victims of senseless violence and terror. After completing the puzzle (spoiler), you may want to click here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here for factual backup and an assortment of perspectives on the puzzle’s theme. Warning: Some of these will enrage you, and others will break your heart.

Click here to view or download the puzzle in PDF format; here to download it as a puz file; here to download it as an ipuz file [requires the free Puzzazz app to solve]; here to solve the puzzle interactively (thanks to Jim Horne); here for the solution. We are indebted to Ralph Bunker, John Child, Noam Elkies, Katherine Halpern, Michael Hanko, Lewis Rothlein, and Ned White for beta testing the puzzle and for their sensitive and creative suggestions that improved it.

If you want to tell others about this particular page, refer them to http://tinyurl.com/piecepuz

Down
1. Done in stages
2. Harm
3. Pang
4. Fails to win
5. Superior to
6. Raise red flags
7. ___ hindrance (important concept in
organic chemistry)
8. “Where the Wild Things Are” author/
illustrator Maurice
9. Pro’s foe
10. Fall apart
11. Commotion
12. Even so
19. Half of the “Dedicated to the One I Love”
group
22. Springsteen song that references the
American dream
23. William Jennings Bryan, for one
27. Sheepskin holder
29. Yo-Yo Ma might use one or take one
30. K-O knockout?
31. NaCl
32. Shine, in ad-speak
34. Fossil fuel advocated by fossils such as
Mitch McConnell
36. Chief ___-A-Homa (onetime Braves
mascot; anagram of CON)
37. ___ chamber (apt metaphor for news and
social media)
38. “So ___ is new?”
39. Cry of surprise
40. Politico Paul
42. Knight mare
44. Lotus-___ (race encountered by
Odysseus)
45. Area of influence
47. Mutant who came out in comics in 2015
48. Fruit named for a Turkish town
49. Legit
52. Storage medium
54. “Darn!”
55. Atomizer output
56. Prefix with dynamic or nautical
57. Alias, for short
58. It is often served with cream cheese, on a
bagel

George Barany is a Rockefeller alum (1977) currently on the Chemistry faculty of the
University of Minnesota–Twin Cities and Christopher Adams is a graduate student
in mathematics at the University of Iowa. This puzzle was created with the utmost
respect for the victims of senseless violence and terror. Some aspects will enrage you,
and others will break your heart. For more information, including a link to the answer,
visit here.